blindshot's sketchbook [updating after a brief absence!]

[Topcross]

Topcross Hey, I'm glad the things I'm posting are helping you out! Should I post more in-progress photos?

If you have time for it go for it, I think I'm not the only one that finds it helpful to see how other people build up their paintings.

[blindshot]

Here's a birthday present I did for my girlfriend. I feel like cel shading is harder than painting in a weird way.

[Tamaira2011]

I like everything in conte crayon of yours and your self portrait looks amazing. Love this brush strokes. Also your continuously work on your figure study payed off. Keep up the good work. I have an eye on you

[TFsean]

Awesme sketchbook! The way you build up is quite interesting, quite different to others ive seen but your final product is very solid. Your portraits are simply beautiful. Maybe lets see some envs or colour studies but I really like this sketchbook

[blindshot]

Awesme sketchbook! The way you build up is quite interesting, quite different to others ive seen but your final product is very solid. Your portraits are simply beautiful. Maybe lets see some envs or colour studies but I really like this sketchbook

My buildup has gotten waaaay more gestural as time has worn on. I used to do the whole build up the manikin frame thing but now I basically scribble in the basic area that a figure would take up and then refine that over and over again until it looks good. I think going through the steps over and over again like I used to gave me the ability to do that, though. You have to build up a sound knowledge of the figure and its construction before you can slap it down on paper without thinking about it. Same goes for faces, too.

But hey, I'll definitely try to post more color stuff! I'm thinking about cutting back on the onslaught of updates to do some more heavily developed work.

[Whimsicaltwigs]

Beautiful start on your sketchbook! I really enjoy your protraits and figures. Keep up the great work.

[Giorge]

nice stuff

[krypt]

Very strong renderings you have! Like many have said your final product is really solid.
Keep working on the constructions(manikins,blocks etc) and soon you will be able to pair it up with your rendering! Look forward to your progress! =)

[littlebones]

Man, if someone made that for me as a birthday present I'd be overjoyed, nice work! I think that cel shading looks great. It's clear from your studies you understand how to shade normally anyway, so that's unsurprising. My only beef is that her lower (her left) hand doesn't look like it's really gripping the fox so much as it's just sort of hanging out in a claw-shape. If she were really holding onto a fox that way it'd just slip out of her arms, there's nothing supporting its butt!

Subscribed, keep updating!

[blindshot]

littlebones Now that you mention it, the fox does look a little funny in her arms. I was using a picture I had taken of her to use for a different project as reference, so I just ended up keeping the arm position and drawing a fox on there. Thanks for the heads up! And thank you for the subscription as well!

Speaking of foxes, I'm doing a commission for a philosophy professor. He wanted something that had philosophy and foxes. I call them "Philosofoxes." I plan on doing three of these. The Latin means "I think therefore I am a fox."

[Goats-On-A-Boat]

I love that last fox, it looks amazing, as is everything in this sketchbook. I look especially forward to see what other bits of philosophical genius these foxes tell us next.

[blindshot]

Goats-On-A-Boat Thank you! I should have another one done today.

Very strong renderings you have! Like many have said your final product is really solid.
Keep working on the constructions(manikins,blocks etc) and soon you will be able to pair it up with your rendering! Look forward to your progress! =)

Actually, I've done the whole manikin frame thing for a looong time. I just have a way more gestural approach now that is built on keeping the Loomis manikin frame in mind while I sort of scribble the figure in there. Speed and expression are sort of what I'm focusing on right now, and the manikin frame is time consuming and I feel like my figures look stiff if I do every step. But it's a huge reason I can do the whole gestural thing.

Here's birthday gift for my friend. It's based on this picture of a robot I drew in seventh grade on this PDA thing he had when I saw somebody misspell the word "forgotten." The second picture is the original one from like, eight years ago so everyone gets it.

[blindshot]

Here's an old one I think you guys might appreciate. I had a friend at school sitting next to me watching me draw tell me to draw a sea ape. This is what I came up with. I'd like to revisit this soon as a painting in the near future.

[blindshot]

Yet another philosofox!

[blindshot]

Aaaand my last philosofox!

[blindshot]

I lied in the last post. I got another request.

[obier]

Oh my, the first drawing of this sb is such a gem!!You are definitely great at portraits.

[Urötskidoji]

I really like your faces, the style you have makes them both realistic and kind of stylistic at the same time. Really good stuff!

[blindshot]

obier Thank you! Portraits are something I really enjoy. I think I'm more fascinated by faces than anything else. It's a really subtle art form. The smallest adjustment in the shape of the eyelid or the spacing of an eye can totally change how the portrait is perceived. You're sort of balancing on the edge of a knife when you try to convey an emotion through a portrait.


Urötskidoji Thank you! I try to slightly stylize my portraits so that they look like paintings or drawings instead of photographs. You're not doing yourself any favors by tracing a face from a photograph (unless it's for learning purposes, I don't have anything against tracing as far as that goes).

[aks9]

i really like the yinyangish golden fox emblem you have there on the front page!
along with the charcoal portraits and filosophoxes
keep it up post more, i will subscribe and keep checking on you

i guess if i had to offer a crit, some of the colours on the foxes look a bit "burnt" or "dodged" or too saturated and bright, as if they couldnt really exist on an old parchment like that.

i guess that value-wise, although i am a noob at value and just starting to try and figure it out, the white/highlights are far too bright and look out of place on a parchment-y type thing
but they are awesome nonetheless

[blindshot]

i really like the yinyangish golden fox emblem you have there on the front page!
along with the charcoal portraits and filosophoxes
keep it up post more, i will subscribe and keep checking on you

i guess if i had to offer a crit, some of the colours on the foxes look a bit "burnt" or "dodged" or too saturated and bright, as if they couldnt really exist on an old parchment like that.

i guess that value-wise, although i am a noob at value and just starting to try and figure it out, the white/highlights are far too bright and look out of place on a parchment-y type thing
but they are awesome nonetheless

I can definitely see where you're coming from with the parchment thing. I didn't really want them to look like they had existed on the paper for a long time as much as I wanted them to have a textured background of some sort to add visual interest. If I do more of them I'll experiment with muting the values a little bit!

[blindshot]

Here's some more progress on that portrait I posted earlier. Still jumping around and I've got a ways to go. I'm focusing in on the body, dress, and necklaces for now before I go into the hair again.

[I-Bomb]

thanks for the reply as for your sketch book I love your conte sketches
only thing I can say is work on the balance and scale a little bit more

[blindshot]

udonhead Thanks for stopping by! Are you talking about value scale balance?

Anyway, I stopped working on the underpainting a bit to lay some colors down. Here's what I have so far. Hopefully I get this done today so I can show her parents!

[lisa-gloria]

beautiful work on the portrait. and the foxes crack me up. good on ya.

[Rhubix]

It's funny 'cuz when I saw the "self portrait" in post 54, I realized you were a dude ^_^.
I guess I associated your avatar with you, rather than reading any of your profile... kinda silly, since I'm not, in fact, a robot.
I like the foxes, they're cute. It would be nice to see them as a line up to compare the designs side by side. I think the only one your missing is a really big beefy shape or a fatty. Just to round out the Party ^_^ (no pun intended...)

[blindshot]

Haha, yes, I am a dude. Socrates came close in the chubiness spectrum! I need to think of a really fat philosopher I guess... David Hume might be my next one if that's the case.

[habrok]

I love your animals. And I don't know anything about philosophy, but I like those philosofoxes.

[Topcross]

The portrait is coming along nicely.

And I love the illustrations of the foxes, specially as a series they are really nice.

EDIT: As Rhubix suggested, a lineup off all off them would be cool.

[aks9]

what about a fat laughing buddha?

his teaching started off as an experiential philosophical inquiry, and the religion sort of grew up around him as a result of people following and applying his teachings.

of course he wasn't originally fat, i read somewhere the "fat laughing" version came from chinese buddhism centuries later, where a fat round belly simbolized abundance and prosperity